The Vietnam War – Errors and Omissions

The Richard Nixon Foundation looks forward to a national conversation about the Vietnam War.

The Foundation believes it is vital that President Nixon, who inherited and ended the Vietnam War and brought the POWs home, have an active voice in that conversation.

To that end, the Foundation offers Richard Nixon’s own words and writings — in video interviews, on hundreds of pages of yellow pads, on many hours of White House tapes, in speeches from the Oval Office, and in his 1985 bestselling book No More Vietnams.

The Vietnam War is a new 18-hour documentary directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick currently airing on PBS stations nationwide.

The film deals extensively with President Nixon and the Nixon Foundation will be correcting any factual errors and unsupported allegations.

EPISODE SEVEN: The Veneer of Civilization (June 1968 – May 1969)

Premieres September 25 at 8/7c

Burns/Novick/Ward claim:

According to three of his speechwriters, Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon came to the conclusion in 1968 that there was no way to win the war, but he had to say the opposite to keep some bargaining leverage with the enemy.

Narrator: “Richard Nixon was comfortably ahead in the polls and refused to debate. I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no way to win the war he told three of his speechwriters in private. But we have to say the opposite just to keep some bargaining leverage.”

The Facts:

The apparent source for this quote is Richard Whalen’s book Catch the Falling Flag: A Republican’s Challenge to His Party, in which Mr. Whalen writes:

“As he [Nixon] announced the conclusion he had researched and the course he intended to follow, my pen stopped. ‘I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no way to win the war. But we can’t say that, of course. In fact, we have to seem to say the opposite, just to keep some degree of bargaining leverage.’ … I took Nixon’s conclusion as sincere and remained skeptical of his declared tactics as we reviewed the fourth and final draft.” (Italics in original, pgs. 137, 138.)

Richard Whalen was briefly a Nixon 1968 campaign speechwriter. He left the Nixon staff during the Republican convention in Miami after becoming disillusioned when candidate Nixon didn’t agree with him about Vietnam, and after having disagreements with other staff members. As The New York Times reviewer noted, he used the book to “settle a few personal scores.”

When Richard Nixon became President in January 1969, he inherited a controversial and increasingly unpopular war. In just three years, 1965-1968, the number of Americans in Vietnam had escalated from 16,000 to over 500,000. In No More Vietnams, Nixon noted that the policies and strategies of his predecessors (JFK and LBJ) had precluded the possibility of a military victory. President Nixon’s challenge, as well as his goal, was to end the war in a way that would give our South Vietnamese ally a chance to survive as an independent nation, bring the American POWs home, and preserve the United States’ position as a great power and a force for peace around the world.

How Nixon would end the war, deal with his domestic opposition, and treat America’s allies, was being closely watched in Asian capitals from Manila to Bangkok; particular attention was being paid in Tokyo, Moscow, and Peking.

Nixon wanted the people of South Vietnam to be able to determine their own political future, bring the POWs home, and maintain America’s credibility as an ally and honor as a nation. Without that, the opening to China and détente with the Soviet Union, which included the first-ever treaty to limit strategic nuclear arms, would not have been possible.

Burns/Novick/Ward Claim:

The narrator states as fact that during the 1968 presidential campaign, at candidate Nixon’s personal direction, a Nixon campaign representative contacted the South Vietnamese government and urged President Thieu to stay away from the peace talks announced in the week before the American presidential election.

On one phone conversation President Johnson taped with Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen, discussing his belief the Nixon campaign were urging the South Vietnamese to stay away from the peace talks, Johnson says, “This is treason.”

The film plays a short excerpt from a phone call President Johnson taped, in which Nixon tells the President that he was not involved. The film states as fact, “Nixon was lying and Johnson knew it.” Ultimately, the film claims, Nixon’s “fear” about this “scandal” contributed to the abrupt end of his presidency.

NARRATOR: “But then on November 2nd, with just three days to go until Americans went to the polls, President Thieu suddenly announced that the South Vietnamese government would not attend the proposed talks after all.”

“A representative of the Nixon campaign, at the candidate’s personal direction, had secretly contacted the Saigon government, urging Thieu to stay away from the talks.”

“The representative promised that once Nixon was elected, he would drive a harder bargain with Hanoi than Humphrey would.”

“Due to a CIA bug planted in Thieu’s Saigon office and a FBI wiretap on the South Vietnamese embassy in Washington, Johnson learned what had happened, and called Everett Dirksen, the Republican Senate Minority Leader, to warn him that the Nixon people were committing treason.”

“Nixon was lying and Johnson knew it. But to go public with the information, the President would have to reveal the methods by which he had learned of the Republican candidate’s duplicity. He was unwilling to do so.”

“Nixon’s secret was safe. The American public was never told that the regime, for which 35,000 Americans had died, had been willing to boycott peace talks to help elect Richard Nixon. Or that he had been willing to delay an end to the bloodshed in order to get elected.”

The Facts:

This long and richly detailed story, which is presented as fact, in fact, is a collection (and confusion) of various charges and theories for which there is no proof.

It is irresponsible and tendentious of Mr. Burns and Ms. Novick not to inform viewers that they are oversimplifying a very complicated series of events that have been the subject of intense controversy for almost five decades, and then presenting as fact a more extreme version of those events than is held by many of President Nixon’s strongest critics.

Ignoring the many intriguing and elusive details and the elements of conspiracy theory that have become involved, the Chennault controversy boils down to four basic questions:

(1) Whether or not it is true that candidate Nixon or the Nixon campaign used Mrs. Chennault to tell South Vietnamese President Thieu not to join the Paris talks because a Nixon administration would be tougher on North Vietnam than a Humphrey administration.
(2) If it is true, whether candidate Nixon was personally involved, or whether it was the work of campaign aides without Nixon’s knowledge.
(3) If it is true, regardless of who knew, did it violate the Logan Act?
(4) If it is true, regardless of who knew, did it reach the level of treason?

The answers to these questions have been the source of controversy for almost five decades:

(1) There is no proof that candidate Nixon had any involvement with, or even knowledge, of any such activities.
(2) While there is no proof that any Nixon campaign aide told the South Vietnamese government not to participate in the Paris talks, it is possible that a campaign aide or aides may have pointed out what was already obvious to the South Vietnamese government: that the Nixon campaign pledge was to achieve peace with honor, while the Humphrey campaign had come very close to promising immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces.
(3) Even assuming the most extreme version of the story, Mrs. Chennault was a private citizen, and she was not negotiating with a foreign government.
(4) There is no evidence that candidate Nixon was involved in any way in any untoward, much less illegal or treacherous dealings with South Vietnam.

The same cannot be said of Senator McGovern’s direct negotiations with the North Vietnamese in Paris regarding POWs in 1972. Senator McGovern was an official of the U.S. Government, and he was negotiating with an enemy government during wartime. When confronted with that fact, he denied it.

Mr. Burns and Ms. Novick tell this shocking story (and the Senator’s hardly less shocking denial) briefly, and move on without any comment, without noting that candidate McGovern had actually done what candidate Nixon is charged with having done.

Nor does the documentary note that the Soviet Union tried to influence the 1968 presidential election in favor of Nixon’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Hubert Humphrey. The Soviets, aware of Nixon’s past, wanted to prevent such a strong and effective anti-communist from occupying the Oval Office.

Soviet leaders ordered their ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Dobrynin, to approach Vice President Humphrey with an offer of clandestine funding for his campaign, which the Vice President, properly, refused.

Soviet diplomats in Paris told their American counterparts that Moscow, fearful of a Nixon Administration, were pressuring the North Vietnamese to settle the war before the election in order to moot one of Nixon’s most effective issues. Johnson seized on this information, although it soon became clear that the North Vietnamese, determined to win and confident of victory with time, had no intention of yielding any ground or even of participating in any serious negotiations.

Burns/Novick/Ward claim:

Nixon told aides and the public that he would end the war fast.

NARRATOR: “37,563 Americans had died there by the time he took the Oath of Office. I’m not going to end up like LBJ holed up in the White House, afraid to show my face on the street, Richard Nixon told an aide, I’m going to stop that war. Fast.”

The Facts:

There is no record of President Nixon telling the public he would end the Vietnam war “fast.”

It is true that during his first weeks, and even months, in office, President Nixon was optimistic about being able to end the war quickly because he assumed that the North Vietnamese also wanted peace and would agree to negotiate peace terms that were acceptable and honorable for both sides.

Only slowly and painfully did President Nixon and Dr. Kissinger realize that North Vietnam had no interest in negotiating. The North Vietnamese not only demanded what amounted to an unconditional American surrender, but insisted that the American government topple the South Vietnamese government as it withdrew; nor would the North agree to the return of American POWs, and an accounting for those missing in action.

Between 1969 and 1973, President Nixon delivered fourteen long and detailed speeches to the nation on Vietnam. He used them to keep the American people up to date on developments in his attempts to negotiate an end to the war.

For example, in the third of those speeches, on December 15, 1969, near the end of his first year in office, the President reported “no progress on the negotiating front” for over a month. Four months later, on April 20, 1970 in his fourth address, he echoed those sentiments: “no progress has taken place on the negotiating front.” He introduced a “new initiative for peace” on October 7, 1970 — in his seventh speech — in an attempt to restart negotiations with the North. On January 25, 1972 — in his eighth speech — the President outlined the elements of the numerous proposals the United States had made during these negotiations, only to see them repeatedly rejected by North Vietnam. The North would not agree to a negotiated peace for another year.

Excerpting White House Tapes

The almost thirty-five hundred hours of Nixon White House tapes can be excerpted or taken out of context to “prove” just about anything.

The Burns/Novick film also includes edited audio tapes of LBJ-Dirksen and LBJ-Nixon conversations on this subject. The filmmakers cut sentences early, string segments of sentences together, and edit out three words in the middle of one of Nixon’s key sentences.

In the film, and in the companion book, Burns/Novick/ Ward select and edit sections of the tapes — amounting to a few hundred words out of 3,432 hours of tapes — in order to show what President Nixon or Dr. Kissinger “thought” or “believed” about issues or events.

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PETE WILSON

Pete Wilson has dedicated more than 30 years to serving the citizens of California, including as Governor of California for two terms (1991 to 1999), eight years as a U.S. senator (1983 to 1991), eleven years as mayor of San Diego (1971 to 1983) and five years as a California state assemblyman (1967 to 1971). He is now a principal in Bingham Consulting Group, based in the firm’s Los Angeles office. He is also of counsel to Bingham McCutchen.

As Governor, he is credited with leading California from the depths of recession to prosperous economic recovery. Insisting on strict budget discipline and rehabilitation of the state’s then-hostile environment toward investment and job creation, Governor Wilson provided for market-based unsubsidized health coverage for employees of small businesses and obtained anti-fraud measures that drove down workers’ compensation premiums by 40 percent.

Governor Wilson also successfully pushed to enactment sweeping welfare reforms, including time limits and work requirements, and historic education reforms, including rigorous curricular standards, class-size reduction, and the replacement of social promotion with early, effective remedial education. He also began new programs of individualized testing of all students, teacher-competency and training, a longer instructional year, and a return to phonics and early mastery of reading, writing and mathematical skills. Governor Wilson led efforts to enact tougher crime measures and signed into law “Three Strikes,” (25 years to life for repeat felons) and “One Strike,” (25 years to life upon the first conviction of aggravated rape or child molestation). He left office with a public approval rating identical to that received by Ronald Reagan at the conclusion of his service as Governor.

After leaving office, he spent two years as a managing director of Pacific Capital Group, a merchant bank based in Los Angeles. He serves as a director of the Irvine Company, U.S. Telepacific Corporation, Inc., National Information Consortium Inc. and IDT Entertainment.

He is the Chairman of the National World War II Museum, and serves on the Board of the Richard Nixon Presidential Foundation, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, and the Donald Bren Foundation and is a founding director of the California Mentor Foundation.

He has received the Woodrow Wilson Institute Award for Distinguished Public Service and the Patriots Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

A lawyer by trade, he graduated from Berkeley School of Law and is a proud U.S. Marine. He worked as an advance man on Richard Nixon’s campaign for Governor of California in 1962.

RONALD H. WALKER

Ronald H. Walker was a senior partner with Korn/Ferry International, the world’s largest executive search firm, for over 20 years. At Korn/Ferry, Mr. Walker’s client base included Fortune 100 companies.

Mr. Walker’s extensive record of government services includes Special Assistant to President Nixon from 1969 to 1972 where he was the first director of the White House Office of Presidential Advance. In this position, he was responsible for planning and coordinating all Presidential travel, domestic and international. Those visits included all 50 states and 25 countries. He personally directed the preparations for the President’s historic trips to the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union.

President Nixon appointed Mr. Walker the 8th Director of the National Park Service in December 1972 where he served until 1975. In this position, he was charged with the preservation and care of the country’s 300 National Park System areas encompassing 300 million acres of land. He administered a budget of $350 million and managed 15,000 employees who serve the 230 million people that visit America’s parklands annually.

Mr. Walker previously served as a consultant to the White House Personnel Office. He has also served as a senior advisor to four Presidents and on Special Diplomatic assignments abroad. In addition, he has served as a senior advisor to nine Republican Conventions, highlighted by his Chairmanship and position of CEO of the 1984 Republican National Convention held in Dallas, Texas. At the request of President Ronald Reagan, he also chaired the 50th Presidential Inauguration.

Mr. Walker has served on numerous Boards, both public and private, including as a public sector member of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the Richard Nixon Foundation, the Kennedy Center, Vice Chair of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, past chairman of the Freedom’s Foundation at Valley Forge, the National Park Foundation, Grand Teton National Park Foundation, Ford’s Theatre, and Vice Chairman of the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution.

Mr. Walker is a distinguished graduate from the University of Arizona with a BA in Government and American History. He also served in the U.S. Army, attaining the rank of captain.

Dr. DANIELE STRUPPA

Daniele C. Struppa, Ph.D. is the thirteenth president of Chapman University, effective September 1, 2016. Previously, Dr. Struppa held the position of Chancellor at Chapman University.

Dr. Struppa joined Chapman University in 2006 as provost, responsible for creating and implementing academic priorities for the University and for the allocation of resources to support those priorities. In 2007, with the addition of further leadership responsibilities, he was appointed as Chapman’s first chancellor.

He came to Chapman University from George Mason University, where he served as director of the Center for the Applications of Mathematics, as chair of the Department of Mathematical Sciences, and as associate dean for graduate studies. In 1997, he was selected dean of George Mason’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Prior to his tenure at George Mason, Dr. Struppa held positions at the University of Milano (Milan, Italy), the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa, Italy) and the University of Calabria (Calabria, Italy).

Dr. Struppa earned his laurea in mathematics from the University of Milan, Italy in 1977, and received his doctorate degree in mathematics from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1981. In recognition of his work, he has been awarded the Bartolozzi Prize from the Italian Mathematical Union (1981), and the Matsumae Medal from the Matsumae International Foundation of Tokyo (1987).

In 2006, the BIO-IT Coalition (a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., and dedicated to the support of bioinformatics) established a new prize in Dr. Struppa’s honor – the “Professor Daniele Struppa Award” – which is designed to honor high school teachers in math, science and technology.

Dr. Struppa is the author of more than 200 refereed publications, and he is the editor of several volumes. He has edited or co-authored more than ten books. He joined the Richard Nixon Foundation Board in 2019.

J. PETER SIMON

J. Peter Simon co-founded William E. Simon and Sons (WES&S), along with his late father, former Treasury Secretary William E. Simon, and his brother, Bill Simon, Jr. in 1988. He currently serves as Co-Chairman of the Firm and its Investment Group and is also Co-Chairman of the William E. Simon Foundation.

Mr. Simon was previously employed by Kidder Peabody in New York City from 1975 to 1988. At Kidder Peabody, he rose to Managing Director in the convertible securities department.

Mr. Simon earned a BA in Psychology from Lafayette College and also attended NYU’s Graduate School of Business.

Currently, Mr. Simon also serves on the Board of Directors of Puck Holdings (NJ Devils), is an appointed member of the New Jersey State Board of Education and is a member of the Board of Trustees at Lafayette College. At Lafayette College he is Chairman of the Endowment Committee and serves on both the Easton Committee and the Student Life Committee. At the University of Rochester he is Chairman of The William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Executive Advisory Committee.

Philanthropically, Mr. Simon donates his time to a broad variety of charitable entities. He is Chairman of the Morristown Memorial Health Foundation Board of Trustees and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Richard Nixon Foundation. At the Richard Nixon Foundation he is also Chairman of the Investment Committee and a member of the Executive/Nominations Committee. Currently he is a member of the Covenant House New Jersey Board of Directors, a member of the New Vernon Cemetery Association, a member of the Board of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, and a provisional member of the Charles Hayden Foundation.

Past philanthropic commitments include the Alliance for School Choice Board of Trustees, serving as Chairman of the Finance Committee and as a member of the Executive Committee. He served on the Gladney Center Board of Trustees, the National Council for Adoption Board of Trustees and the Peck School Board of Trustees. He was also a member of the New Jersey Seeds Advisory Committee and a member of the Teen Ranch Foundation in Ontario, Canada.

Mr. Simon resides in Green Village, NJ with his wife Janet and their four children.

RICHARD (SANDY) QUINN

Richard (Sandy) Quinn was President of the Richard Nixon Foundation from 2010 to 2014. He was an assistant to Richard Nixon traveling with him during his 1962 California gubernatorial bid. He later served on the staff of Governor Ronald Reagan, including as 1967 Inaugural Committee Chairman, and later served as Chief of Staff for U.S. Senator George Murphy in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Quinn was head of marketing for Walt Disney World in Florida through construction, the opening in 1971 and several years of operation, and later joined the Marriott Corp. as a division Vice President.

He was President of Quinn/Brein Marketing & Communications for many years, serving blue chip corporate accounts throughout the United States. He graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in business.

MAUREEN DROWN NUNN

Maureen Drown Nunn is a teacher, author, speaker, trainer, interpreter, and a mother of five.

Her career has spanned a variety of disciplines, including her current outreach efforts as an interpreter for Doctors Without Borders.

Mrs. Nunn was the host of a television talk show Moments with Maureen, a 30-minute syndicated program that leapt high above standard talk shows to help everyday people overcome everyday challenges, by learning from others who had overcome adversity and succeeded.

Not only is she an experienced television host with over 15 years in the entertainment business, her other successful nationally syndicated show, Everyday Heroes, won a Cable Ace award.

Mrs. Nunn also hosted a weekly Spanish call-in show with Lety Dominguez Bolivar called Comunidad Latina con Maria y Lety, and was awarded three Diamond Awards and a President’s Award. She studied Spanish in school and found that her language skills created opportunities to hurdle cultural barriers and help others to succeed.

Mrs. Nunn managed her career while being a mother and achieved success in both her professional and her family life.

She attended Perdue University and obtained her MA in Spanish/Education from the University of Southern California. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

TOD R. HULLIN

Tod Hullin is senior vice president of Public Policy for The Boeing Company, and a member of the company’s Executive Council. In this position, he leads the company’s worldwide public policy efforts, including all U.S. federal, state and local government liaison operations for Boeing.

Hullin has extensive public policy experience in both the public and private sectors – in the aerospace, pharmaceutical and entertainment industries, as well as in the U.S. government.

He joined Boeing in 2003 and served as the company’s senior communications executive. He has had overall responsibility for public relations, executive and employee communications, advertising and branding, and international communications.

Prior to joining Boeing, Hullin held the senior public policy position at Vivendi Universal. Previously, he had served as the senior global public policy and communications officer for The Seagram Company, Time Warner and SmithKline Beecham. He was vice president of the Interstate General Corporation from 1977 to 1983.

Hullin began his professional career in 1969 in the Nixon administration as a member of the White House staff. He moved to the White House Domestic Council staff in 1971 and to the Domestic Council for Housing and Community Development in 1974.

In 1976 he was appointed the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Public Affairs. He was the second-ranking executive charged with developing, coordinating, managing and monitoring the worldwide external and internal communications plans for the Department of Defense. In this capacity, he also served as official spokesman at news conferences and briefings.

Hullin graduated from the University of Washington in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree in business.

MING HSIEH

Ming Hsieh is Chairman of the Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fulgent Therapeautics.

Prior to founding Fulgent, Mr. Hsieh served as Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the board of directors of Cogent, Inc., or Cogent, a biometric identification services and products company he co-founded in 1990, which was acquired by 3M in 2010.

Prior to his tenure at Cogent, Mr. Hsieh founded and served as Vice President of AMAX Technology from 1987 to 1990. Mr. Hsieh currently serves on the board of directors of Fortinet, Inc., a network security company traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “FTNT.”

An engineer raised in the throes of the Cultural Revolution, Mr. Hsieh emigrated from China in 1981. He received a B.S.E.E. from the University of Southern California in 1983 and an M.S.E.E. from USC in 1984, as well as honorary doctoral degrees from USC in 2010 and the University of West Virginia in 2011. He joined the Board of the Richard Nixon Foundation in 2019.

Mr. Hsieh has served as a trustee at USC since 2007 and at Fudan University in China since 2011.

In 2015, Mr. Hsieh was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

LAWRENCE M. HIGBY

Lawrence M. Higby is a corporate executive with over 30 years of experience, including as Chief Executive Officer of Apria Healthcare Group Inc., from 2002 to 2008 and President and Chief Operating Officer from 1997 to 2004.

Prior to Apria, he served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of Unocal 76 Products Company and Group Vice President of Unocal Corporation from 1994 to 1997. From 1986 to 1994, he was with Times Mirror Company as Executive Vice President of Marketing of the Los Angeles Times. He was the President and Chief Operating Officer of America’s Pharmacy Inc., (a division of Caremark Inc.).

From 1974 to 1985, he served in executive management positions in sales and marketing at various divisions of PepsiCo, including Vice President of Marketing in North America. Prior to that, he was the Assistant to White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman in the Nixon administration from 1969 to 1973.

Mr. Higby served as Chairman of the New Majority California, and served as Chairman of the Orange County chapter. He also serves on several corporate and nonprofit boards, including as the former Chairman of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, a Director of the Automobile Club of Southern California, a Director of the Bipartisan Policy Center and a Board Member of the Richard Nixon Foundation and Chair of the Nominations and Compensation Committees.

Mr. Higby holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science of the University of California, Los Angeles and also attended the University of California’s Graduate School of Business. He is a recipient of the Horatio Alger Award.

Hugh Hewitt

Hugh Hewitt is a tenured Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law, a columnist for The Washington Post and host of the nationally syndicated show on the Salem Radio Network, The Hugh Hewitt Show. He was a panelist on four CNN Republican Primary Debates in 2016 and is a frequent panelist on NBC’s Meet the Press. He is President, CEO and General Counsel of the Richard Nixon Foundation.

Hewitt graduated cum laude with a BA in Government from Harvard in 1978. After leaving Harvard, he worked first for David Eisenhower, then for former President Richard Nixon, as a researcher and writer in San Clemente, California and New York. During this time, he worked on President Nixon’s books The Real War and Leaders. At President Nixon’s urging, Hugh attended the University of Michigan School of Law where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif and graduated magna cum laude in 1983.

Hewitt clerked for Judges Roger Robb and George MacKinnon on the D.C. Court of Appeals in 1983-84. He served President Ronald Reagan as Deputy Director and General Counsel of the Office of Personnel Management, General Counsel for the National Endowment for the Humanities, and as Assistant White House Counsel and Special Assistant to the Attorney General. In 1989, he returned to California at President Nixon’s request to oversee the Nixon Library project from groundbreaking through Grand Opening on July 19, 1990.

Hewitt is the author of a dozen books, including two New York Times best-sellers.